Pointed arch

pointed arches from Chytroi-Constantia Aqueduct, Cyprus Crude arches pointed in shape have been discovered from the Bronze Age site of Nippur dated earlier than 2700 BC. The palace of Nineveh also has pointed arched drains but they have no true keystone. There are many other Greek examples, late Roman and Sassanian examples, mostly evidenced in early church building in Syria and Mesopotamia, but also in engineering works such as the Byzantine Karamagara Bridge, with a pointed arch of span, making "the pre-Muslim origins of pointed architecture an unassailable contention". The clearest surviving example of pre-islamic pointed arches are the two pointed arches of Chytroi-Constantia Aqueduct in Cyprus dating back to the 7th century CE. == Pointed arches – Islamic architecture ==

The pointed arch became an early feature of architecture in the Islamic world. It appeared in early Islamic architecture, including in both Umayyad architecture and Abbasid architecture (late 7th to 9th centuries). The most advanced form of pointed arch in Islamic architecture was the four-centred arch, which appeared in the architecture of the Abbasids. Early examples include the portals of the Qubbat al-Sulaiybiyya, an octagonal pavilion, and the Qasr al-'Ashiq palace, both at Samarra, built by the Abbasid caliphs in the 9th century for their new capital. It later appeared in Fatimid architecture in Egypt and became characteristic of the architecture of Persianate cultures, including Persian architecture, the architecture of the Timurid Empire, and Indo-Islamic architecture. File:قصر العاشق 03.JPG|Restored Abbasid architecture arches of the city gates of Samarra (9th century) File:Ibn-Tulun-Moschee 2015-11-14i.jpg|Central prayer niche in the Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo (876–879 CE) File:SamarkandBibiKhanym.jpg|Bibi-Khanym Mosque, Samarkand, Uzbekistan (1399–1404) File:AspendosBrücke1.jpg|The Eurymedon Bridge in Turkey, originally built by the Romans and rebuilt with a pointed arch in the 13th century by the Seljuk Turkish Sultan File:Sheikh Lotf Allah 3D aa.jpg|Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, Isfahan Iran (1603–1619) The evolution of the pointed arch in Islamic architecture was associated with increases between the centers of the circles forming the two sides of the arch (making the arch less "blunt" and more "sharp"), from of the span in Qusayr 'Amra (712-715 AD), to in Hammam as-Sarah (725-730), to in Qasr Al-Mshatta (744), and finally to in Fustat (861-862). The existence of pre-Islamic Late Roman and Byzantine examples does not by itself establish a single origin for the pointed arch, but it shows that the form was already part of the Roman-Byzantine architectural repertoire before the rise of Islam. John Warren, in his study of Creswell's dating of early Muslim pointed arches, noted Byzantine examples including the Karamagara Bridge, Sant'Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna, and Hagia Irene in Constantinople, alongside other pre-Muslim examples in the wider Near East. Charles Anthony Stewart has also argued that pointed arches and flying buttresses in Early Byzantine Cyprus should be understood as Byzantine architectural innovations rather than as later Gothic influence. In western European Romanesque architecture, pointed arches also had an internal structural rationale. At Durham Cathedral, stone ribs forming pointed arches were used to support the nave vault; the Durham World Heritage Site explains that pointed arches allowed arches of different spans to rise to the same height and helped transfer the weight of stone vaulting downward toward the walls. The Romanesque and Gothic use of the pointed arch is therefore better described as developing within European building practice, with possible regional influences in some cases, rather than as a simple borrowing from Islamic architecture. Pre-Islamic Late Roman and Byzantine examples show that the pointed arch was already used within European/Roman-Byzantine architecture before Islam; Early Byzantine evidence from Cyprus has been interpreted as local architectural innovation, while the later Romanesque and Gothic use of pointed arches in western Europe had clear structural motives within European rib-vault construction. == Gothic architecture – pointed arches and rib vaulting ==

The reduction of thrust on supports that a pointed arch provided, as compared to a semicircular one with the same load and span, was quickly recognized by medieval European builders. They achieved this at first through experimentation, but technical literature dating to the Renaissance indicates that formulas for determining thrust may have been in use during the medieval period. == Revival of pointed arch ==

Though the Gothic pointed arch was largely abandoned during the Renaissance, replaced by more classical forms, it reappeared in the 18th and 19th century, Gothic Revival architecture. It was used in Strawberry Hill House, the residence in Twickenham, London built by Horace Walpole (1717–1797) from 1749 onward. It was usually used in churches and chapels, and later in the British Houses of Parliament in London, (1840–1876) rebuilt after the earlier building was destroyed by a fire. In the 19th century, pointed arches appeared in varied structures, including the Gothic train station in Peterhof, Russia (1857). File:Strawberry Hill House 01.jpg|Strawberry Hill House, residence of Horace Walpole (1749 onward) File:Houses of Parliament, Entrance to Victoria's Tower (3611642058).jpg|Entrance to Victoria's Tower of the Houses of Parliament, London (1840–1876) File:Станция Новый Петергоф -1.jpg|, Peterhof, Russia (1857) File:Almudena 2022 - nave.jpg|Interior of Almudena Cathedral in Madrid (1889–1992) ==Notes and citations==